T-Fibre to be displayed at WCIT

Hyderabad: The high-speed Internet connectivity project of Telangana Fibre Grid Corporation (T-Fibre) will make its debut at the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) scheduled to commence in Hyderabad on Monday.

T-Fibre officials will showcase the prestigious project before IT and telecommunications giants at the international event and also share results of their pilot project taken up in four villages of Maheshwaram mandal in Ranga Reddy district.

The authorities established a Technology Demonstration Network (TDN) with high-speed Internet connectivity covering about 50 government offices and households in Maheshwaram, Tummaluru, Sirigurpur and Mansanpalli villages of Maheshwaram mandal in Rangareddy district. Arrangements have been made at Hitex, the venue of WCIT, to enable delegates interact with the villagers who are enjoying the fruits of e-governance as well as entertainment services.

Under the pilot project taken up at a cost of Rs 11 crore, around 10 technology majors — Cisco, HP, Tera Soft, Intex, L&T, D-Link and Tejas Network, to name a few — volunteered to test the high-speed Internet connectivity in these villages. Using the fibre optical network, officials successfully tested e-governance services such as Mee Seva, education, health, security surveillance and panchayat services as well as monetisation ones like broadband Internet, cable television, telephone connection and IPTV services Vidya Nipuna.

The T-Fibre project aims at providing Internet connectivity to about one crore households in Telangana and make government services more accessible to people. As against 1.25 lakh km of ducts, more than 30,000 km have already been laid to carry optic fibre cables as of January-end. “The project will be completed by this year-end. The government is keen on using IT for effective governance and also ensure inclusive social and economic development,” a top official closely involved in the project told Telangana Today.

Official sources in the IT Department said the TDN was tested successfully and the results of these tests will be shared with the delegates in an attempt to showcase business potential in the State for IT and telecommunication firms. They informed that T-Fibre is already receiving proposals from various companies for partnering in providing low-cost but high-speed Internet services across the State. “We are confident that more private firms will be eager to join us after WCIT,” the officials said.

The T-Fibre project was initially taken up as part of the Central government’s BharatNet programme at an estimated cost of Rs 5,500 crore. In an innovative step, IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao associated T-Fibre project with another flagship project of the State government — Mission Bhagiratha — and used pipeline trenches for laying ducts that carry optic fibre cables. Thus, the State government succeeded in reducing expenditure to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore and expedited laying of optic fibre. While the Centre promised Rs 1,242 crore under BharatNet, T-Fibre is pooling the remaining of about Rs 1,758 crore through bank loans.